ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the economic lives of United States LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) communities, and provides information to help social workers to develop an intersectional understanding of LGBT people. It identifies recommendations for change, and highlights information and skills that social work students need in order to strengthen their competency in working with LGBT populations. LGBT people have lower income levels and higher poverty rates than their heterosexual and cisgender peers in the general population. The chapter examines what existing research tells about income and poverty among different LGBT populations, and demonstrates how, despite media depictions to the contrary, economic inequality and poverty are a crisis in all LGBT communities. Poverty rates for same-sex couples living in rural areas are twice as high as they are for same-sex couples who live in large cities. Social workers engaged in micro-level work with LGBT people will enhance their effectiveness by utilizing intersectional approaches to assessment of clients.
